She's here!!

Charlotte Elizabeth

We are proud to announce that on Friday, September 24, we officially became a family of 4. Charlotte Elizabeth Nold was born at 2:03 pm, at a weight of 6 pounds 13 ounces, and a length of 19 1/2 inches.


Here's a photo recap of the last few days. Wednesday was my last day of work, and on Thursday, my mom (Grammy Jarvis) flew in from Vermont. After picking her up at the airport, she accompanied me to my last prenatal appointment. We arrived a bit early, so to kill a few minutes of time, we went across the street from my doctor's office (on Michigan Ave) and checked out the Bean.



Later that evening, we went out to Grandma and Grandpa Nold's house to drop off Jack and Lou. Here's Jack in some of his last moments as an only child :)



Grammy, Andy, and I arrived at the hospital bright and early Friday morning at 5:00 am. I started receiving Pitocin around 5:45, and about 8 hours later Charlotte arrived. The only good thing I have to say about the labor is that it was shorter than with Jack (his lasted about 18 hours). Also, I didn't have to push very long--just about 20 minutes. Apart from that, I'll just say I thought I had experienced the worst pain of my life with Jack's labor, but the pain this time was on a whole other level. I really don't like to think about it.

My post-delivery experience was excellent. There were some things I really wanted with Charlotte that I hadn't known much about at the time with Jack. I wanted her skin-to-skin with me immediately after delivery, and for most of the procedures (measurements, eye prophylaxis, bath, Vitamin K shot, etc.) to wait until after Charlotte's first feeding. Our main nurse was great, and she was perfectly willing to adjust her normal post-delivery routine around my wishes. I had gone into the hospital that day all prepared to battle with the staff if necessary to get what I wanted, and then it turned out I didn't have to worry about that at all :)




Grandma and Grandpa Nold brought Jack to the hospital later that evening. Jack's overall reaction to Charlotte so far has mostly been ambivalence. He's been basking in all the attention from his grandparents and the gifts that people have been thoughtful to get for him.

I wasn't a big fan of my hospital bed, but Jack seemed to like it.




(We're still working on getting a picture of the 4 of us together.)

We were discharged from the hospital Saturday evening, but up until today were back at the hospital every day. Charlotte tested positive on her Coombs test, so her bilirubin levels and risk of jaundice were a concern. (I'm probably not saying this exactly right, but the Coombs test is kind of a mother-infant blood-type incompatibility indicator; temporary for a newborn, but one of the side effects can be increased risk for jaundice).

She's still looking a little yellow now, but fortunately, her bilirubin level remained stable and at a safe level from Sunday-Monday, so she didn't have to get admitted for phototherapy like Jack did. (Jack's jaundice wasn't due to Coombs; it was a bit of a mystery, but I still maintain it was from being exposed to Pitocin for such a long time.)

Perfect timing...looks like our little girl is waking up from her nap, so I will wrap this up. We have lots more pictures, so hopefully I can post those in the next day or two.